Monday, August 12, 2013

"Welcome to the continuing monthly EVE Blog Banters and our
48th edition! For more details about what the blog banters are visit theBlog Banter page.

This month's topic is a request from CCP Sisyphus who wants to know how
important is Lore in EVE Online?

How important is “fluff” in Eve online? Would eve online be the
same if it were purely numbers and mechanics, or are the fictional elements
important to the enjoyment of the game? Would a pure text, no reference to
sci-fi or fancy names still be an engaging game? Should CCP put more or less
emphasis on immersion?"

First, a few remarks on the above
statement:(1) I do not consider the Lore of
New Eden (or any well crafted and seriously thought out backstory for any
decent game) as “fluff”...(2) I do not consider Immersion
as a definition, or a main part, of Lore. The Lore assists with Immersion
during gameplay (especially roleplay).That said, in response to what I
feel the Burning Question of BB48: How important is Lore in EVE Online?

First and foremost this is an
extremely subjective question. Lore, the science fiction based backstory and
additional scifi based current stories in EvE and the ongoing emergent (living)
history of New Eden that we the playerbase are creating are collectively the
'Lore' of EvE.

These just barely scratch the
surface... the number of blogs and fanfic, official and player driven sites
with ties and stories that relate to both the fictional and emergent Lore of
EvE is quite simply astounding. My blog, “A
CARBON Based Life” is basically a journal of my experiences as my main,
'TurAmarth ElRandir' a Matarii Empyrean and Anoikis Mercenary... and the
stories I write of my exploits are as much 'Lore' as Tony Gonzales's “EVE
Templar One” novel, just emergent Lore based on my virtual life experiences as
compared to stories of fictional (sometimes blended with emergent) experiences.

Ripard
Teg said the lore in games like the Elder Scrolls “...often has an
impact on game-play...”, and “...the lore [in EvE] doesn't impact
the game-play at all. And therefore I get no advantage out of learning it.”.
This is because the Lore in EvE is not about game play or (directly) the
mechanics of the game, it is not about 'advantage', it is about history... it
IS our virtual history and while history does not give you direct advantages,
it gives indirect advantages. It helps one to understand the mindset and
culture of a group of people.

In EvE, as the 'offical' history
is fictional and does not actually relate to the reality (or virtuality if you will) of the playerbase. The real people
playing EvE are not in actuality Gallente, Amarr or Matarii so we do not act in
accordance with the Official Lore. This is where Emergent Lore comes from.
Capsuleers are not Gallente, or Matarii, we may come from them but we are now
Immortals, separate, apart and very different from the great mass of 'normal' humans
that populate the worlds and fill the stations and...

~break~...and yes, (asubbotin,commenter on Ripard’s blog) the
hundreds and thousands of people who serve, and often die, as crew our ships
(if anyone thinks for one second that one lone human mentally hot-wired into
the computer systems of a STARSHIP could handle everything on his own is
seriously delusional... (and you know what? That's ok by me as, of course, EvE
IS a game after all as our ships [in the GAME] are actually piloted by one guy
sittin at a keyboard and staring into a screen...) but, in the official
Lore it is a well established fact that our ships, all except PODs and
shuttles are crewed by more than just one lone guy, no matter how enhanced, implanted
and plugged in he may be... Ignoring this is simply something players who want
to just play a spaceship game like it's an FPS do... except EvE is not an
FPS...but I digress...

How important is the Lore, or
would a “...pure text, no reference to
sci-fi or fancy names...” game be as engaging as EvE is? Simply put, IMHO
not to me... but to answer that maybe the question is not 'how' but 'why' is
Lore important? The plain truth is that while it garners you not one single
'advantage' in playing the game, it fulfills the need for understanding and
basis of the why of the way things are now and it gives a framework from which
to work forward... Forward? How so you ask?

“EVE Templar One” is a novel by
Tony Gonzales that is (1) a highly enjoyable work of good SciFi in and of
itself but it is also (B) the Lore, the backstory that provides an explanation
of how the DUSTers came to exist in New Eden and the technology involved. Is
this important? Well, it won't help you kill anyone better, of fit your ships
better, or take and hold Sov... but it does form the basis, the rationale
behind, all Industrial production. T1, 2 & 3 assets.

New fictional lore
could give us access to new tech. For instance Sleeper tech salvaged from the
Sleepers themselves as the original consciousness transfer tech was... this
could be a basis for new implant tech... this also is a good basis for WiS and
backs up some of the proposed gameplay inherent in that Lore.

IMHO the best Lore in EvE is the
same as the best Myth and Legend IRL... the Lore that we don't know yet. IRL
the story behind the Anaasází ( Navajo for "Ancient Ones" or
"Ancient Enemy" commonly called Anasazi) is fascinating because we
don't “know” the story. There are no records and little evidence left behind
for us.

In EvE the Sleepers and the Talocan take that place... all we have left
from them are the artifacts they left behind and so we find them fascinating...
we are discovering their Lore as we go. I will admit to, as some of you already
know, a great disappointment when CCP dropped the plans for Walking in Stations
which COULD have led to some facilitating and potentially profitable avatar
based gameplay such as this...

None of the Lore gives anyone any
real ‘advantages’ in gameplay per se... but like history in the real world... the lore of the
people, the folklore of New Eden if you will... is the tapestry created from
the interweaving of the stories, both fictional and emergent, of our living
history...

Whether or not it is important to
you depends on whether you care about history, and a good story... now doesn't
it?

“The brainchild of the Blogfather, Crazy Kinux,
blog banters are single subjects discussed across the EVE blogging community.
It encourages the sharing of ideas and cross-pollination of readership. All in
all a healthy thing for a community.“

Them as what follow me...

Graphiti...

Round and round we go...

Fav Post Bytes...

"Maybe we're not that different after all and I have my own reality to get to grips with."Absence of Substance

Now THAT is wisdom...

We are, each and alone, the absolute center of our subjective 'verse... this is the way of life.To see another's POV as if it were your own... this is the way of truth...To allow that some others have POVs you cannot and will never understand, and yet accept them as they are, this is the way of acceptance...To kill them all without rancor or anger, but in brotherhood... this is the way of EVE.

This Is What We DO!!!

POD Locked

We're Soooo Bad at Hisec!

New Odysseyt Wormhole Jump Animations

EVE Forever, the Second Decade

EVE Easter Egg

Quafe's The One

Negato:

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